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New York University researchers evaluated 25 clinical services and screening recommendations for nonpregnant adults issued by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and created a flex-model that personalizes and ranks them based on gains in life expectancy. The report, in the Annals of Internal Medicine, said for a patient without diabetes, the highest priority would be smoking cessation, followed by losing weight and lowering blood pressure and cholesterol.

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A draft recommendation from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said there is not adequate evidence to assess the benefits and harms of autism screening in asymptomatic children ages 18 to 30 months. The report said evidence showed current screening tests can detect autism spectrum disorders, but Jennifer Frost, M.D., medical director for the AAFP Health of the Public and Science Division, commented that it is still not known whether the screening leads to better outcomes for children.

The rate of mammograms in the U.S. remained almost the same more than three years after the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force revised its recommendations regarding breast cancer screenings, a study found. Conflicting recommendations from several groups may have confused providers and patients, researchers said. The findings were reported online in the journal Cancer.

A U.S. Preventive Services Task Force draft recommendation says there is not enough evidence to evaluate the benefits and risks of screening adults without vision symptoms for primary open-angle glaucoma in a family medicine setting. The task force's statement agrees with AAFP's 2005 recommendation that also found a lack of evidence to make a recommendation on screening adults for glaucoma.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force on Monday in a draft recommendation advised primary care physicians to consider hepatitis C screening for adults born between 1945 and 1965, and it said those with a history of IV drug use or blood transfusions prior to 1992 should be tested. The recommendations were an update to the group's 2004 statement and urge screening for all high-risk adults.

Further studies should be conducted to determine the possible advantages and disadvantages of screening all adults for signs of chronic kidney disease, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said. "Clinicians and patients deserve better information on chronic kidney disease," task force member Dr. Joy Melnikow said. The task force's statement was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.